Constitutive photomorphogenesis 1 (COP1) nucleic acid sequence from zea mays and its use thereof

Abstract

The present invention relates to an isolated COP1 nucleic acid sequence from a maize plant and the isolated COP1 nucleic acid sequence is named as ZmCOP1. The present invention also relates to a method of using the ZmCOP1 nucleic acid sequence to control the shade avoidance response of a crop plant for high density farming and yield enhancement.

We claim: 
     
       1. A recombinant DNA construct comprising a COP1 nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence that has at least 90% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 21, said COP1 nucleotide sequence being operably linked upstream (5′) to a heterologous promoter that functions in a plant and downstream (3′) to a regulatory element, wherein the polypeptide binds to a COP1 protein. 
     
     
       2. A crop plant comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       3. Progeny or seeds comprising the recombinant DNA construct of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       4. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 1 , wherein said promoter comprises a light-inducible promoter. 
     
     
       5. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 4 , wherein said promoter is selected from the group consisting of a cab promoter, an ATHB-2 promoter, and a far red light inducible promoter. 
     
     
       6. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 4 , wherein said promoter comprises a cab promoter. 
     
     
       7. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 1 , wherein said regulatory element comprises an intron. 
     
     
       8. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 7 , wherein said intron comprises a hsp70 intron. 
     
     
       9. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 1 , wherein said COP1 nucleotide sequence is isolated from a monocot plant. 
     
     
       10. The recombinant DNA construct of  claim 9 , wherein said COP1 nucleotide sequence is isolated from a rice maize plant.